Blood of Tyrants: George Washington & the Forging of the Presidency Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Introduction

  I - THE KING OF AMERICA

  Chapter 1 - The Not-So-United States

  Chapter 2 - Not as Happy in Peace as They Had Been Glorious in War

  Chapter 3 - The Shadow Government

  Chapter 4 - The Phoenix

  Chapter 5 - Wield the Sword

  Chapter 6 - Supreme Law of the Land

  II - CRUEL AND USUAL PUNISHMENT

  Chapter 7 - The Currents of War

  Chapter 8 - Exitus Acta Probat

  Chapter 9 - American Fortitude

  Chapter 10 - Necessary Evil

  Chapter 11 - Fully Justifiable

  Chapter 12 - To Defend the Nation

  III - DICTATOR OF AMERICA

  Chapter 13 - Scorpion on a Leash

  Chapter 14 - Between a Hawk and a Buzzard

  Chapter 15 - Onslaught

  Chapter 16 - The Times That Try Men’s Souls

  Chapter 17 - Reevaluation

  Chapter 18 - Victory or Death

  Chapter 19 - Idolatry

  Chapter 20 - Dictator Perpetuo

  IV - TRIBUNALS & TRIBULATIONS

  Chapter 21 - Gentleman Johnny vs. Granny Gates

  Chapter 22 - A Traitor Lurks

  Chapter 23 - Treason of the Blackest Dye

  Chapter 24 - Commissions & Courts-Martial

  Chapter 25 - American Military Justice

  V - HIS EXCELLENCY’S LOYAL SUBJECTS

  Chapter 26 - Total Ruin

  Chapter 27 - Band of Brethren

  Chapter 28 - Poison & Peas

  Chapter 29 - America’s Defender

  Chapter 30 - License to Plunder

  Chapter 31 - Not-So-Civil War

  VI - COULD HAVE BEEN KING

  Chapter 32 - O God! It Is All Over!

  Chapter 33 - Winning the Peace

  Chapter 34 - Spectacles & Speculation

  Chapter 35 - The Greatest Man in the World

  EPILOGUE

  Acknowledgments

  NOTES

  INDEX

  Copyright Page

  For Sheila and Thomas Beirne, my two favorite patriots

  This unfinished—and unflattering—portrait by Gilbert Stuart ironically came to be the most famous depiction of Washington. Martha Washington criticized it as not a “true resemblance.” Photograph © 2013 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution / Art Resource, NY

  Martha and George Washington entertained a great many visitors at their grand Mount Vernon estate beside the Potomac. In fact, the visitors became so frequent that George resorted to removing signage in order to confuse would-be houseguests. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-pga-01228

  This print depicts Independence Hall at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. This building served as the principle seat of government, except for periods when Congress was forced by the advancing British forces to evacuate. With the postwar government failing, Washington and other patriot leaders returned in 1787 for the Constitutional Convention. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-pga-04142

  With the help of his assistants, Washington produced an amazing 140,000 documents during the Revolutionary War. Foreseeing his letters’ value to posterity, he checked virtually all of the scribes’ work and held each letter to exacting standards. He spent his nights documenting his actions and explaining to Congress what was needed to conduct the war. This image of his inaugural address depicts Washington’s own fine penmanship. National Archives (Records of the U.S. Senate)

  Washington was born into a family of relatively modest means but worked (and married) his way into wealth. This depiction of Washington as a child is titled “Father, I cannot tell a lie: I cut the tree,” and perpetuates the cherry tree myth. Washington indeed told a great many lies, and his knack for deception enabled the United States to outwit the British and win the war. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-pga-02152

  The Sons of Liberty punish a Loyalist for his opposition to the Revolution. The practice of “tarring and feathering” had originated in 1189 with Richard the Lionheart during the Crusades, but was not used extensively until the colonists revived it during their revolt against Britain. National Archives photo no. 148-GW-436 (The George Washington Bicentennial Commission)

  Throwing caution to the wind, Ethan Allen launches a daring surprise attack on Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775. The sleeping British did not even have time to dress, let alone put up a fight. National Archives photo no. 111-SC-94758 (Signal Corps Photographs of American Military Activity)

  This portrait depicts Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson poring over a draft of the Declaration of Independence at Jefferson’s lodgings in Philadelphia in June 1776. In an early draft, Jefferson referred to the American people as “subjects.” While he simply crossed out other errors in the draft, this was the only word that he obliterated with furious strokes of his pen. The American people were no longer “subjects” of any king. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-9904

  George Washington organizes a masterful secret retreat from Long Island during a violent storm in August 1776. According to one soldier’s diary, the troops, “strictly enjoined not to speak, or even cough,” silently filed into the boats, and New England fishermen used their unique skill set to ferry them to safety in Manhattan. National Archives photo no. 148-GW-174 (The George Washington Bicentennial Commission)

  During that winter of 1777–1778 at Valley Forge, Washington pleaded with Congress for food, clothing, and supplies, writing, “I am now convinced, beyond a Doubt that unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place in that line, this Army must inevitably be reduced to one or other of these three things. Starve, dissolve, or disperse, in order to obtain subsistence.” National Archives photo no. 148-GW-436 (The George Washington Bicentennial Commission)

  Sloppy in appearance and crude in manner, Charles Lee was reputed to have a romantic life “of the transient kind.” A military genius who resented serving under Washington, he got along better with his pack of dogs than he did with most people. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-3617

  “Parade with us, my brave fellows!” Washington shouts as he leads the charge at Princeton in January 1777. With his hat in hand, he rode ahead on his horse, yelling, “There is but a handful of the enemy, and we will have them directly.” Despite being caught in the crossfire, Washington emerged unscathed as he had done time and again. He believed that a divine Providence protected him. National Archives photo no. 148-GW-335 (The George Washington Bicentennial Commission)

  American women were crucial to winning the Revolutionary War, with some even jumping into battle. When John Adams wrote his wife of the Continental Army’s defeats, Abigail confidently declared that if Washington’s troops were overrun, the British forces would then be compelled to fight “a race of Amazons in America.” National Archives photo no. 148-GW-436 (The George Washington Bicentennial Commission)

  Alexander Hamilton served as Washington’s shrewd right-hand man and one of his closest confidants during the war. After the United States’ victory, he ardently advocated a more centralized nation. National Archives photo no. 148-GW-436 (The George Washington Bicentennial Commission)

  A mere five feet tall and 120 pounds, James Madison was an intellectual giant and a driving force behind the drafting of the Constitution. He declared that creatin
g even a “limited monarchy . . . was out of the question” and used his masterful political skills to help form the new republican government. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-19166

  The wily Benjamin Franklin used his guile to charm the French court—particularly the female contingent. Through parties and chess games, he persuaded the French to send aid to the American cause and eventually declare war on Britain. As the war wound down, he then infuriated the French by working with John Adams and John Jay to outmaneuver them in the peace process. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-pga-01591

  INTRODUCTION

  “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

  —THOMAS JEFFERSON, 1787

  A bloodthirsty Congress demands revenge. The commander in chief weighs torture. Politicians clash with generals over war policy. Americans’ liberties come under attack. No, this is not the post-9/11 United States. This is the side of the American Revolution you never knew.

  Many hold the mistaken belief that America’s Founders simply divined the answers to antiquated problems that are of little importance today. This could not be further from the truth. Instead of knowing all of the solutions, the founding generation battled the horrors of war as they struggled to define what it meant to be an American. And their definition remains relevant. While much of their correspondence involved horses and bayonets, they nevertheless confronted the same fundamental issues of leadership and government that continue to perplex us. In doing so, the Founders forged the American way. From their triumphs emerged bedrock principles that have direct applicability to contemporary debate. This book tells the story of those American ideals from our humble beginnings.

  Long before he was known as the “Father of Our Country,” George Washington was the “Devourer of Villages.”1 The great leader first tasted warfare two decades before the Revolutionary War when he led a peacetime act of aggression against a French diplomatic party. In doing so, he unwittingly sparked a bloody war that spanned two continents.

  At the time, the territory inland from the eastern seaboard of the American colonies was a vast wilderness, dominated by the rolling hills of the Appalachians. On a wet May morning in 1754, an abundance of broadleaf trees created a thick canopy that shaded Washington and his troops from the rising sun. The smell of fresh pollen and moist earth permeated the air as the soldiers crouched behind the large, moss-covered boulders thrown haphazardly about the little glen. The natural beauty of the verdant fauna amidst the jagged rock was the least of Washington’s cares, however. He and his regiment were primed for attack.

  Washington’s early morning trap consisted of forty haggard colonists along with thirteen semi-naked Native American allies. Ironically, Washington and his soldiers were poised in this foreign land under orders not to destroy, but to build.2 Not yet at war, the age-old blood rivals Britain and France fiercely contested this region, since each viewed the Ohio River basin as the key to dominating the continent. And the young Washington marched headstrong into this international powder keg.

  Not yet the regal image now depicted on the dollar bill, Washington was a fresh-faced surveyor-turned-warrior with long, red-brown hair atop his prominent forehead, large gray-blue eyes, long, broad nose, and rippling jaw.3 A muscular six feet and 175 pounds, he was literally a giant among men of the time, although a bit unusually proportioned, with “[h]is shoulders narrow for his height but his hands and feet tremendous.” 4 He possessed a commanding presence despite his youth, and “exuded such masculine power as frightens young women.”5 This fearsome young man ached for glory.

  When the upper echelons of Virginia society sent Washington to stake Britain’s claim to the Ohio Valley, the twenty-one-year-old Washington was determined to prove himself. But dealing with the French was no easy task. During his first diplomatic attempt to drive them from the region, Washington was cordially received and invited to dine with the French officers. “The Wine, as they dosed themselves pretty plentifully with it, soon banished the[ir] Restraint,” he wrote. “They Told me That it was their absolute Design to take possession of the Ohio [River basin], and by G___ they would do it.”6 Washington used this alcohol-induced intelligence to advocate that the British construct a fort in the area to establish control.

  Obtaining approval to do so, the ambitious young lieutenant colonel led his militia through the spring mud of the thick virgin wilderness, lugging along the supplies necessary to construct the stronghold. But what had begun as an adventure quickly deteriorated into a perilous mess. As it turned out, the colonists enjoyed the realities of military service far less than their idealized notions of battle.

  Washington struggled to hold his militia together as they grumbled about their low pay, dwindling rum, and the wet, inhospitable conditions. 7 Some deserted and many others were threatening to follow suit. Desperate to pacify his shoeless—and even shirtless—men, Washington confiscated supplies along the way.

  “I doubt not that in some points I may have strained the law,” he recorded, “but I hope, as my sole motive was to expedite the march, I shall be supported in it, should my authority be questioned, which at present I do not apprehend, unless some busybody intermeddles.”8 Bending the rules as his unit slowly disintegrated in the middle of the vast wilderness, Washington was not only wary of Native American attack, but above all feared disgrace before his superiors back in Virginia.9

  It was at this increasingly desperate time that he received intelligence from his Native American ally, a shrewd Seneca warrior named Chief Tanacharison. Although not the actual ruler of the Iroquois Confederacy that dominated much of the region, Tanacharison was called the “Half King” due to his diplomatic and military leadership within the confederation. The man’s very appearance provoked fear in the British and French alike: usually bare-chested except for ornamental necklaces that swung around his sinewy neck, the Half King wore large earrings in his startlingly stretched earlobes. Above a dark, weathered face and wrinkled brow, his bronzed head was bald except for long, braided hair stemming from the very back of his scalp.10 And this menacing warrior had an ax to grind—both figuratively and literally.

  The Half King harbored a seething hatred for the French, whom he accused of boiling and eating his father.11 Tanacharison was born into a tribe described by Jesuit missionaries as “altogether barbarous, being cruel, sly, cunning, and prone to bloodshed and carnage,” and his vendetta was no trivial matter.12 He viewed the British “fools” as the lesser of two evils and was eager to fight alongside them to exact his revenge.13 So he approached Washington with a report that a French scouting party of approximately fifty soldiers loomed nearby.14 The Half King convinced the young Virginian that they “had bad hearts” and were “resolved to strike the first English they meet.”15

  Under strict orders from the French governor not to attack unless provoked, these French soldiers were likely to be little threat. France’s explicit goal, in fact, was to “keep up that Union which exists between the [British and French] Crowns.”16 Although Washington was likewise ordered in no uncertain terms to act “on the defensive,” he feared imminent attack and lusted for a glorious military victory before his enemies could strike.17 Late that night, Washington led his small force on an eight-hour march “in small path, & heavy rain, and night as dark as it is possible to conceive,” to rendezvous with the Half King’s war party.18 “They groped their way in single file, by footpaths through the woods, in a heavy rain and murky darkness, tripping occasionally and stumbling over each other, sometimes losing the track for fifteen or twenty minutes,” but found the enemy camp before sunrise.19

  Disregarding his direct order to warn all Frenchmen away before initiating hostilities, Washington was persuaded by Tanacharison to stage a joint strike. He approached with his exhausted men “in Indian fashion,” stealthily setting up his ambush.20 He and his still-soaked team peered over a small cliff at the French force, who
se blue, well-tailored uniforms made them absurdly obvious targets against the muted browns and greens of the early morning forest floor.21 Washington’s hodgepodge group of young militiamen presented a stark contrast to their foes’ prim color coordination. Some, like Washington, boasted decorative red uniforms complete with three-pointed black hats. Others sported the tattered remains of the earth-toned wool and linen coats and breeches that they wore on their farms back home. Whatever their dress, all had guns pointed at their French foes.

  They patiently aimed between the small maples that clung to the cracks in the outcropping and waited with bated breath in anticipation of an intense fire fight. Alongside Tanacharison’s braves, they watched their prey wake and prepare for the day. The groggy, unsuspecting French party was surrounded.22

  In his signature gallant fashion, Washington rose from his hiding place at seven o’clock and boomingly ordered the attack.23 A startled French sentry attempted to sound an alarm, but to no avail, as he quickly fell to the Americans’ lead. Although they were meant to serve more as a construction crew than a lethal fighting force, Washington’s men proved exceedingly efficient in mowing down their targets as they took “their Arms, and fir’d briskly till [the French] were defeated.”24 After this brief, bloody firefight, a majority of the Frenchmen were killed or captured.